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Slasher attacks Ciudad Juarez activist who was shot previously

February 3, 2012 | 6:39
pm

REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- Norma Andrade, a well-known defender of women from Ciudad Juarez, was attacked and injured Friday in Mexico City, where she had fled after being shot and threatened in her hometown.

Andrade, founder of the group May Our Daughters Return Home, was walking a grandchild to school Friday morning in the Coyoacan neighborhood when a man approached her and slashed her face, police said.

Amnesty International in Mexico said in statement that she was attacked in her doorway, but authorities said that information was still not confirmed (links in Spanish).

Friday's incident is the second time that Andrade has been attacked recently, raising suspicion among social activists that she is being targeted for her work documenting the unsolved deaths of scores of women -- including her own daughter -- in violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez.

In December, Andrade was shot five times in an incident that authorities described at the time as a botched carjacking. Andrade said it was an "attempted homicide" (link in Spanish).

Andrade had requested protection from the Chihuahua state government because of threats. After the shooting, she moved to the relative safety of Mexico City.

May Our Daughters Return Home was founded in 2001 after one of Andrade's daughters was found slain, one of the many unsolved killings of young women in the border city that social justice groups worldwide call a human-rights tragedy.

Andrade was taken to a hospital after Friday's attack and was being treated for her injuries.